Desert Crest Press

Timeless beauty from native Arizona stone for patio water features and firepits work well with Phoenix homes.

Patio designs for Phoenix homes do not have to be large to make space for all the comforts of outdoor living. The beauty of our native Arizona stone adds great interest when the color selected for building water features and firepits echoes the tones of your pavers for patio. The overall effect when the paving stones flooring and the masonry features give off the appearance that they were all created with the same stone looks very sophisticated. While we sometimes prefer to make the elements of patio designs accent each other rather than look to be all made of the same material, such a choice changes the feeling of your outdoor living rooms completely.

These Phoenix homeowners have a rather small private space, so the patio designs for this yard were best to be built from lighter tones to give the feeling of a larger space. Instead of electing a solid color for the paving stones patio floor, a blend of desert landscape colors can easily be found in native Arizona stone. Sticking to stone masonry that flows with the pavers places the greater part of the weight on texture over colors. We made great use out of both weathered face stone against stucco walls in the background and smoother cut stone in both structures.

The difference in coloring and pattern found in cut stone of the same type used in the weathered edge form gives this patio water fountain wall and basin more interest. Contrasting smooth with rough surfaces is a great way to give a lot more personality than if everything looked exactly the same. Designing really artistic looking stone structures for your Phoenix home requires a keen eye for natural stone. The finished look of your Arizona water feature or firepit will always have a great deal more beauty when all six sides of the pieces used in the construction are considered.

Firepits burning wood and natural gas are both popular choices for evening light and warmth in outdoor rooms. The available space you have in the private areas of your yard, can limit where these lifestyle enhancements of fire and

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water are situated. Some homeowners in Phoenix elect to put them at opposite sides of the patio designs. Others choose the combination of being close to the cascading water for its cooling effect and soothing sound to be enjoyable along with the open flames of their patio firepit.

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Natural beauty in patio designs using Arizona flagstone and stucco elements.

Not everyone wants pavers for the surface of their sidewalks or courtyard and patio floors. Here in Arizona, the climate is perfect for long lasting flagstone paving. Complementing our adobe architecture is easily done with stucco as part of your outdoor living and patio designs. Combining both stucco and Arizona flagstone in your courtyard and patio design is an excellent enhancement to your home and lifestyle.

The elements of Phoenix landscape design that work well with stucco construction are items like your ramada pillars, patio seat walls, courtyard walls or outdoor fireplace and barbeques. The stucco can be made to match the color used in the walls of your adobe home or to accent it by echoing the colors in the Arizona flagstone paving. With barbeque islands, the counter top is formed with a capping of either smoothly honed natural stone tile or ceramic. Deciding with of the selections of built in barbeques capping works best will depend on your patio design and taste.

From beehives to barbeques, stucco and stone are perfect partners in Phoenix landscape design.

Using Arizona flagstone in your Phoenix landscape design blends so beautifully with the surrounding countryside blend of the available buff, oak, rose, Sedona red and gold tones that are found in the rock formations here can make patio designs very unique. Flagstone paving can be installed all on one level or in stepped designs for multi level patios that add wonderful dimension to outdoor living area designs. This also allows flagstone to lend itself quite nicely to impressive sidewalks and courtyard flooring that flows.

Stucco is a material that can be applied to many different shapes far easier than crafting them out of natural stone and brick. Using stucco in your Phoenix landscape design makes it very simple to have curved walls and seats, round pillars or square all according to the look you desire when the installation project is finished.

Applying light and dark values of Arizona flagstone colors can create some very beautiful effects in all the elements of your Phoenix patio designs. Working with our native stone also makes it possible to include more than just flagstone cuts of the same colored rock. Incorporating boulders as accents in the landscape design or walls of your home’s structure and stucco is a great way to pull everything together using different forms and textures.

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Building outdoor kitchens is part of patio design that is as unique as you are.

If there is one thing that people living in Arizona can benefit from all year long, it’s having a patio design that has room for building outdoor kitchens. For some homeowners, custom built barbeques need only be simple outdoor kitchen gas grill islands. For those who enjoy whipping up a gourmet dinner in the great outdoors regularly, an outdoor kitchen barbecue means having everything handy … including the kitchen sink.

Appliances and accessories for today’s outdoor kitchen include stainless steel inserts of all kinds to outfit a complete patio kitchen. Planning your outdoor dining area adjacent to the stone outdoor grill is perfect for the Phoenix lifestyle. Weatherproof outdoor kitchen appliances include covered cook tops, refrigerators, freezers and wine coolers to create patio design kitchens just right for outdoor chefs. You can select from different sizes of outdoor kitchen gas grills and also add a smoker to your cooking station. For the wonderful flavor of wood fired pizza and artisan breads, you can enjoy old world cuisine baked in your own outdoor pizza and bread oven.

Beautifully compliment Phoenix home styles with natural stone barbeques custom built the artisan way.

Stone topped outdoor kitchen gas grill islands can be crafted from natural stone, pavers for garden walls and stucco to create the perfect complement to your home and patio design. Storage cabinets can be added for storage beneath all custom built barbeques. Many Phoenix patio designs attach a bar that can double as serving space too.

The perfect Phoenix outdoor living room enhancements are patio designs that include an outdoor kitchen, stainless steel inserts and storage doors are an instant hit. Situating your stone outdoor grill and kitchen beneath the cooling shade of a rustic trellis ramada will provide welcome relief from the Arizona sun.

Patio design can feature natural stone flagging or pavers for patio for long lasting beauty and utility in our mild climate.Working with an experienced landscape designer will make building an outdoor kitchen much easier and the finished project far more professional looking and enjoyable to use. You’ll be able to add landscape lighting and extend the use of your new outdoor living room any time of day or night you choose to.

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There are some very lovely plants that will deal with light to moderate shade in your Phoenix landscaping.

In fact, many plants that will take full sun will be more productive at flowering and even bearing fruit if they have some shady protection from the blistering afternoon summer sun here in Arizona.

The most attractive vines for foliage and blooming will be those that prefer light to medium shade. When it comes to true Xeriscape plants that vine and do well in the shade you will want to use flowering Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans). Depending on the selection, Trumpet Vine can bloom in soft melon to vibrant flaming red accented orange. Just as in most regions of the country, Phoenix landscaping plants that like a shadier situation do require consistent moisture.

Don’t despair, this is easily provided without you needing to remember to keep them moist with automatic drip irrigation. For moister soil and vibrant orange blooms in light shade, Cape Jasmine (Tecoma capensis) is a rambling vine that looks gorgeous cascading over walls. It is also useful for screening and will tolerate the sun so is a great candidate for creating shade and privacy beneath your patio ramada shade structure. Cape Jasmine is somewhat drought tolerant, once established in your Arizona landscaping.

Some of the most handsome flowering vines for your Phoenix courtyard walls or other shaded areas give you the choice of some really wonderful blooms and even lovely scents. For purples and lavender colored blooming, take a look at Purple Vine Lilac (Hardenbergia violacea). In bloom showy sprays of light grape hued flowers add an excellent showiness to the evergreen foliage. This particular vine does well in shade and tolerates drier conditions than many climbing plants well suited for shade plantings in your Arizona yard.

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For part shade landscape design in Phoenix, the vibrant yellow blooming Cat Claw Vine (Macfadyena unguis-cati) will create quite a show rambling along and spilling over courtyard walls or trellises. While drought tolerant, you will be far more please with the lush, shiny evergreen foliage with the addition of drip irrigation. There are other plants that can be successfully grown in light shade for climbing walls in Arizona landscaping, but the rest of them are not as hardy as these selections are.

Popularity: 90% [?]

Relief from the sun by day, gourmet grilling barbeque and the element fire to warm the night.

The vast canopy of the unfettered Arizona sky is the most fabulous ceiling your life could have. Intensely blue by day and a star studded black velvet expanse by night, the uncluttered space leaves you with a sense of wonder. Forming the overhead view, the sky is a large part of the invitation your landscape design and patio provides.

Clean stone paving, both of the mortared and dry laid variety are both very well suited to the mild desert climate. Natural stone flagging can be stunning, but at times can be too costly of a material for large lifestyle patio flooring. Due to this fact, many people reserve natural stone flagging for their secluded courtyard areas. The more affordable cost per square foot of paver stones is most popular for patio designs today. The versatile variable sizes, shapes and wonderful color assortment that paver stones are now available in gives your patio landscape design the look and feel of cut stone paving.

Living in Phoenix affords you all season use of your patio living room. This makes adding the lifestyle enhancements of built in stone barbeques and an outdoor fireplace highly desirable. To best compliment the house architecture of the southwest, outdoor fireplace designs are best constructed from natural stone, desert hued brick or the perfect adobe partner known as the beehive. The rounded, traditional beehive fireplace is sometimes referred to as a kiva and is found in many of the older homes from Arizona history.

The element of fire provides us with increased ambiance beneath the starlit sky along with warmth on a chilly desert evening. For adding ambiance to an intimate evening for two to creating a memorable focal point of childhood events like roasting hotdogs on a stick and roasting marshmallows, you just can’t beat an outdoor fireplace on your patio. Many a gathering of friends in the Arizona backyard naturally gravitates to camaraderie shared in front of the dancing flames sharing a glass of wine and delicious food fresh grilled in the outdoor kitchen’s built in barbeques.

Simple outdoor kitchen areas on the Arizona lifestyle patio will be a gas grill built into a stone and stucco BBQ island. The smooth stone surface of built in barbeques provide at least a food preparation and serving counter. With homeowners nationwide embracing the outdoor living room landscape design, full outdoor kitchen features are available for convenience and food safety. An extended built in barbeques island can house an outdoor refrigerator, wine cooler, freezer and patio dishes and cooking utensils storage cabinets as well. The most popular feature for built in barbeques structures is having the design include bar space as well that accommodates patio bar stools for guests and the chef.

Just as when you are planning a new home or in the process of locating just the right pieces of furniture to fit your indoor rooms and allow traffic flow, space planning is also important with patio landscape design. You will want a less hectic air on your Arizona lifestyle patio, so planning traffic aisle space that doesn’t cause congestion and interruption for each activity area is important to your level of enjoyment on the patio.

The same can be said of placing your outdoor fireplace. You will want to be sure there is safe passage around adjacent seating areas and that the line of view of the dancing flames can be enjoyed from most spots on the patio as well as fireside. The more activities your patio will accommodate, the more valuable this key landscape design feature will provide to your family and your home’s real estate price points. A well-planned patio design will offer good flow from inside and out, along with beauty and space for larger gatherings to take place beneath the Phoenix, AZ sky.

Popularity: 66% [?]